The group, founded in 1999, operates a ship that provides family planning services, information and trainings outside territorial waters in countries where abortion is illegal. The Moroccan trip was part of a larger campaign to raise awareness about the safety of medical abortions and to provide medical abortion services on the ship on international waters for women who needed such services.

In Morocco, like a lot of other Muslim states, abortion is illegal and punishable by steep prison sentences. Outlawing abortion though hasn’t made the need disappear. Women on Waves estimates that between 600-800 illegal abortions take place in Morocco daily. Most are carried out in underground clinics or using homeopathic herbal medicines and all are carried out in conditions much riskier than if the procedure were legal.

Women on Waves have made similar visits to traditionally Roman Catholic countries like Spain, Portugal and Ireland in the past and continue to visit countries where access to abortion services are cut off, ensuring women across the globe have access to safe family planning services.

It’s a critical need and one that is becoming more acute as conservatives take their fight against women’s autonomy and comprehensive family planning global. Like in the United States, religious organizations increasingly provide and run more and more social services abroad and restrict abortion and family planning assistance from those services provided. The results are devastating to women across the globe.

The fight for abortion access in countries like Morocco serves as a good reminder of what’s on the line in the fight for abortion rights stateside. Abortion was illegal at one time in this country, and conservatives are doing all they can to make that fact a reality again. In places like Mississippi, where the state’s only clinic is on the verge of being regulated out of existence, it almost is a reality. How long till Women on Waves docks outside of Biloxi?

Love This? Never Miss Another Story.

Thanks for subscribing!

GREAT STORY, RIGHT?

Share it with your friends

79 comments

Well fighting the cultures of these countries is dangerous.....when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in a vocational school with all young women except for 3 or 4 young men...disabled young men...OUR SCHOOL HAD ONE OF THEIR OWN WOMEN AS A FAMILY LIFE INSTRUCTOR...AND COUNSELOR...I DID NOT GET INVOLVED BECAUSE I WAS AGAINST THE LAWS OF THEIR COUNTRY...AND THE HISTORY OF CULTURE GOES BACK SO FAR THAT IT IS HARD TO BREAK.....

ADDITIONALLY, THE CATHOLICS WOULD POPULATE THE WORLD NEVER THINKING HOW THEY ARE TREATING WOMEN AND CHILDREN....THE SAY THEY ARE THIS AND THAT BUT WHEREVER THEY GO IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES THEY DO CRIMINALLY GO ALONG WITH THE CULTURES TO PRODUCE...PRODUCE....AND THEN THESE POOR WOMEN HAVE 10 KIDS AND SEVERAL STILLBORNS OR SPONTANEOUS ABORTIONS...AND THEIR FEMALE SYSTEM BECOMES SO THAT THEIR UTERUS CANNOT SUPPORT A CHILD AND THE CATHOLICS STILL DONT CARE ON THE WHOLE....AND ALL SORTS OF PROBLEMS CAN HAVE AN EFFECT ON INFANTICIDE AND A MOTHERS DEATH......

WITH THE EVENT OF THE INTERNET ..... WOMEN SHOULD HELP WOMEN WORLD WIDE THAT WAY ALSO....I AM SURE THERE ARE WAYS FOR YOUNGER WOMEN TO GET INFO FROM THE INTERNET...SECONDLY, IF YOU WANT TO BE A CHRISTIAN IN A 3RD WORLD COUNTRY......DONT BECOME A CATHOLIC.

Even the most sophisticated animals know how to keep their birth-rates down. Why is it ...that I see mostly men engaged in anti-abortion talks and it's men standing on the pavement with anti-abortion signs. They really like to control women and we could very well have the American version of the muslim-taliban here if we aren't vigilant.

Personally, the order I would go in is First and Foremost--Prevention, a.k.a contraception and if that fails the very next option would be adoption, but if not, then a legal abortion is better than an IL-legal abortion--After all, in the bad old days of IL-legal abortions both the mother and child all too often died--one death is bad; two deaths are far worse.

I am not surprised in the least. Religion is the biggest hurdle for abortion rights activists, even here in the U.S. Do these fanatics realize that HUMAN overpopulation is killing this planet and ALL its inhabitants. We are devouring all of our resources and unless something major is done, the next generation will suffer tragically due to water/food shortages, etc. I commend these brave souls who risk their lives to spread the word about abortion rights.